And Britain’s ‘Most Popular Royal’ Award Goes To…(It’s Not Who You Think!)
Kate Middleton may have captured the eye and heart of many, but not even the fact that she is carrying another royal heir could capture her first place in the opinion of the British. Instead, a recent YouGov poll for Newsweek showed that it is young, handsome Prince Harry who is the most popular member of the royal family!
Even more surprisingly, Kate Middleton didn’t even come in at second. Or third. Prince Harry was followed by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, in popularity. In third place was Prince William, with Kate coming in at fourth place. She captured only nine percent of the vote, which was drawn from a sampling of 3,000 British adults.
Now, it is not that much of a surprise that Prince Harry has managed to rise in popularity in recent years. He has transformed from a mischievous, partying kid to a dashing young man (who still enjoys his fun) who served in the British Army Air Corps as an Apache helicopter pilot, and now espouses and champions causes like wounded veterans.
But what of Kate Middleton? Fourth place seems low, considering nearly everything she does makes headlines. She’s young, beautiful, married to a prince who is in a direct line to the throne, has an adorable baby, is pregnant with another and is considered something of a fashion icon.
The polling done for Newsweek may have the answer to that.
Kate is more popular with women than with men, but the majority of female respondents felt as though the duchess has been held back from expressing her true opinions. 22 percent of the women in the poll felt as though Kate were not allowed to express her opinions enough. Only one percent of women wanted to be Kate, and only 11 percent of women polled would like to experience being Kate for just one day…and only six percent of the men polled said they would want to marry her. Less than 20 percent of British citizens polled would call Kate “inspirational” and only three percent would refer to her as a “feminist.” The majority of the sample, especially the majority of female respondents, view Kate’s main roles to be those of mother and wife.
There was a lot of positives seen about Kate, as well, though – 65 percent of all respondents thought Kate was still either a very positive or fairly positive role model for young girls. In fact, she ranked second out of a list of nine very successful women in the public eye as a popular role model. Only Olympic triathlon champion Jessica Ennis ranking higher.
[Image via Zimbio]
